


Tell me how we looking. We're looking and feeling just fine, too

by OneTwoVillainess



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming Out, Gay Zuko (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Lesbian Toph Beifong, POV Zuko (Avatar), Partially Blind Zuko (Avatar), Partially Deaf Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26112505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneTwoVillainess/pseuds/OneTwoVillainess
Summary: “I am sure it’d be nice to have some company,” nods uncles“I’ll go, it might be fun, Sparky,” agrees Toph “But we’re not getting makeovers or doing each other's nails,” she says pointedly.Zuko snorts, “Good,”---Zuko wasn't expecting to see Toph eating breakfast in the Jasmine Dragon, but he did, and he sat down to join her. And, now they've decided to go an spontaneous thrifting adventure well somehow deciding to yeah, they're definetly siblings now and have joint custody of Iroh.---Read the notes
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Iroh, Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	Tell me how we looking. We're looking and feeling just fine, too

**Author's Note:**

> This an excerpt from a much much longer fic I am working on right now, but this is one of my favorite chapters so far so I wanted to post it to see if anyone was even interested in what I have to write anyways. Some small comments may not make sense because this is really just an excerpt but overall I hope it makes sense. This is really just Toph and Zuko being two dumb idiots on an adventure together once they've decided to adopt each other as siblings. They've both had each other for a day and a half but if anything happened to the other they'd kill everyone in the room then go out for ice cream together.  
> \---  
> Also uncle has a built in uncle sense that tells him when Toph and Zuko are being dumbasses, source for this, me.

Zuko’s standing in the break room of the Jasmine Dragon pouring himself a cup of coffee from the still warm pot in his hand. Rina must have made a fresh pot recently. He yawns. He had woken up only half an hour ago and when he had checked his phone it had claimed to be 10 something in the morning which would’ve been a perfectly fine time to wake up if he had managed to go to sleep at a semi-reasonable time, but no, he had stayed up studying for upcoming midterms and listening to music.  
He pours in some milk and stirs in a little bit of sugar before he takes a sip. And WOW, he really needed that. Sure, he had taken a shower and brushed his teeth and all that jazz but up till like 30 seconds ago he could probably still be classified as asleep. He sleep-got-out-of-bed, sleep-showered, sleep-dressed-himself-in-his-favorite-pair-of-black-mom-jeans, he even sleep-put-on-a-Piando’sSwords-shirt, and sleep-grabbed-his-keys-phone-and-wallet, it wouldn’t be the first time and it definitely won’t be the last time.  
He takes a few cookies from the day old pastry pile that’s always in the breakroom and puts them onto a napkin. He debates staying in the back and hiding from the Jasmine Dragon's morning crowd but decides against it. He knows uncle is working right now and it’d be nice to see him because he already knows that today is going to be a long day and he can use gentle encouragement. He knows that he's definitely going to have to stay up late studying again, he should probably be studying right now too but his mind needs a break. He leaves the safety of the office space that uncle had converted into a breakroom for the employees and heads to the front of the store.  
Earlier he had come in through the back door so he doesn’t know if there even any seats open for him to claim but if not he’ll just go back to the breakroom and sulk. He exits the breakroom into the kitchen waving to Rina as she works on the towering pile of dishes by the sink and makes his way to the side hallway that will take him to the store’s main area. When he leaves the hallway and walks into the front section he pauses and his face scrunches up as his eyes go wide. Sitting there at one of the tables in a pair of jeans, a white tank top and a green flannel with Momo curled up at her feet with a tea cup in front of her as she eats a muffin is Toph, and she’s alone.  
He blinks a few times, but everytime he opens his eyes she’s still there drinking her tea with just Momo for company. He makes his way over to them, “Hi, Toph,” he says, stopping in front of her table.  
“Sparky?” she says tilting her head upwards towards his voice “I didn’t realize you were working right now?”.  
“Oh, I am not, I just wanted breakfast,” he says looking down at the napkin with cookies in one of his hands and the coffee mug in his other.  
Toph nods her head and waves her hand to the empty chair across from her. Zuko takes this as an invitation and sits down with her at the table.  
He starts tearing chunks of the cookies and eating them for a few minutes before speaking. He isn’t quite sure what to say so he decides to just keep it casual, “So, how’s the muffin?”.  
“It’s fine I guess, I like popping the blueberries in it when I bite into them. I hate muffins's whose blueberries get all squishy when they bake before they’re eaten, cause like, what’s the point of eating blueberries if you don’t get to explode 'em on your mouth”  
“Oh, cool, and thanks,” he says taking a sip from his coffee.  
“What?”  
Zuko rubs at the back of his neck and looks down at the table between them, “Um, I helped uncle perfect the recipe,”  
“That he did. And I think we did wonderfully,” says uncle approaching the table with a teapot in hand to refill Toph’s near empty cup.  
“Let me know if you need any taste testers,” she ofers, pushing her tea cup toward uncle “I’ve been known to have excellent and heightened taste buds, you know,”  
He refills her cup and slides it back in front as he smiles down at the two of them “Ah, thank you for the offer, Toph”.  
“No problem,” she shrugs and stuffs half the muffin into her mouth. Zuko figures that that’s probably normal for her so he just rips off another piece of his cookie and brings it to his mouth.  
“It would be lovely to have another young person here to help as we test out new recipes. I like to change them out every couple of weeks,” says uncle pausing only briefly to collect his thoughts before continuing “Change isn’t inherently good or bad, merely different. Some new additions in the past have unfortunately not worked out, but with each change, every time we tried something new, we learned. That has ultimately allowed us to grow as a business, because from experience which we gained through experiments we have managed to learn more about ourselves, those that work with us, and our customers. Not all changes have been successes but none of them have been failures for we gained knowledge. I’ll make sure to set aside our latest developments for you when we next try to shake things up a bit,” he finishes.  
Toph has to chew and swallow down some of the muffin still in her mouth before she can say anything but after she manages to get down most of it she mumbles a “Thanks, Uncle,” with a minimal amount of crumbles flying out of her mouth as she speaks.  
“Your welcome, your feedback will be most valuable for the shop,” says uncle wiping away the crumbles that had fallen onto the table with a napkin.  
Toph smiles as she sips her tea but then uncle has to leave them to tend some new customers that had just entered the shop. Uncle wishes them a good morning and then he whisks off to greet people creating a little breeze as he turns and leaves their table  
Toph sniffs at the air, “Why do I smell coffee?”.  
“Because it’s 10 in the morning or otherwise known as the ass crack of dawn and I need this,” says Zuko.   
“But where did you even get coffee?”  
“Breakroom has a coffee maker, and I wanted coffee,” shrugs Zuko.  
“Okay,” says Toph who shrugs herself.  
They go back to silently eat and slowly Zuko starts to wake up some more. Yeah, he really did need this.  
“You got it pretty nice and convenient for breakfast here,” says Toph as she gestures around to the tea shop while holding the half other of her muffin in her hand.  
“Eh, most mornings I just grab something from the apartment but I didn’t feel cooking so here I am,” he doesn’t mention that cooking is more like putting a waffle in the toaster as he makes tea and then running out the door with a waffle while trying to cram it down down his throat and in nearly tripping down the stairs and breaking his neck in the daily process.  
“Most of the time for breakfast I just take a swig of orange juice and eat a granola bar,”  
“Seems fine to me,” he says, taking a sip of his coffee.  
Uncle appears in front of their table again, “There are some that say breakfast is the most important meal of the day and for some that is true but as long as you are eating something that is good,” he says stopping in front of them with a strained smile on his face. Zuko has to hide his wince, he should’ve known better than to say something that could worry uncle while in the tea shop. It’s not unlike uncle is always ease-dropping, he just has surprisingly good hearing for someone his age and cares about them and that they're taking care of themselves.  
“Something with nutrients would be ideal but truthfully anything will do,” he continues, “It’s good that you both are making sure to eat, and if you ever wish to take the time to sit down and center yourselves with a meal, well, I hear the Jasmine Dragon as some fine breakfast options and when in doubt they have a to-go menu too," he says pausing only briefly to chuckle to himself. "For some breakfast is vitally important, it can offer a chance to breathe before a hectic day and be a chance to enjoy the morning, but for others it can be a painful nuisance that they would rather not partake in and that’s understandable and okay. What’s important is providing your bodies, but also your souls, with the nutrients to continue on throughout the day. For some that means a large breakfast at the sun’s first rays and for others it means a near afternoon snack resembling a more traditional lunch food, both belong to the same end of the spectrum trouble arises if the opposite, which is no food being taken in, occurs too regularly. So enjoy your breakfasts and I wish you both a great start to a wonderful day,” finishes uncle. He leaves and returns to behind the counter where he sets his watering can shaped teapot down back onto a vacant burner.   
Zuko slurps his coffee and turns back toward Toph, “So, got another music lab time slot at the ass crack of dawn?”.  
“Nah,” she waves off the comment, “I was just in the neighborhood,”  
“Okay,” shrugs Zuko. It’s silent for a few more beats while he tries to think of something to say to keep the conversation flowing, he’s never been good at it “Hey," he starts drawing her attention to him "have you ever heard of Bad Eclipse, they’re-”  
“The literal BEST band to have come out of the Fire Nation in the last 5 years,” cuts off Toph as a smile blooms across her face “Yeah, I’ve been listening to them since their Hate Me days! Have you heard the literal perfection that is the song they dropped last night?”  
“Yeah, it’s really good,” says Zuko with a smile to match Toph’s plastered on his face.  
“Really good? It’s amazing! That guitar solo after Lin sings that line about the tides claiming the lava is one of the best things they’ve ever recorded,”  
“Definitely, I really loved it when they did this style of stuff earlier in their careers and now they’re back making more stuff like “Heart’s destruction” and it’s amazing,”  
“OMS, and when at the end all the instruments and singing faded out one by one and just leave the drums till the final cymbal hit and then it just ends, it’s awesome!” screams Toph.  
“It is,” sighs Zuko wistfully at the memory of the song that had played through his earbuds on repeat last night as he was studying.  
“I am going to learn how to play that song and then I am going to make it some spirit level shit,” announces Toph.  
Zuko hasn’t heard her play but he can remember with how much passion she had when talking about drumming and doesn’t doubt her abilities to make the song even better, “That would be amazing. I made sure to stay up till they dropped the single this morning,”  
“Me too, it was so sudden. It’s like two days ago, Boom, they post that their releasing a new song and a new album will follow in a couple of months,”  
Zuko nods, “It was out of the blue but it just seems so like them,”  
Toph nods vigorously “I listened to that song on repeat like 50 times, so far and I’ve figured out how I want the the ending to go and right now I am working on the rest of it,”  
“That’s really cool, Toph. So, that’s what you’re going to be doing for the day I take it?”  
Toph sighs “I have a couple of classes, later, two of them are more stuff with jazz but the last is more about composition which hopefully won’t suck too much, before I can get to work. What about you, any plans besides listening to the best song ever, that is before I improve it and blow your mind?”  
“I only have two classes and then tutoring with Aang later, but my classes aren’t till like mid-afternoon at least, I have pricing and revenue analytics and then a writing course, which is at this point just the professor monologuing about what he likes and wants to see in our final scripts, and tonight I’ll be studying for midterms” He grimaces at the thought of pulling an almost all-nighter again. He should probably be studying now too, but he had decided that last night he’d give his mind a break and wouldn’t start studying till after tutoring.  
“Ugh,” says Toph “I am not a fan of writing,”.  
Zuko bobs his head in understanding, normally he like literature and writing, but after spending countless hours studying, reading, and writing in preparation for exams, he’s getting sick of it,“Reading books and listening to audiobooks isn’t bad, but what’s the absolute worse is trying to dictate an entire essay to speech to text,” remarks Zuko.  
“YES!!!” yells Toph  
“Because sometimes it’s like how, is a word pronounced, and trying to go back and change a section is so annoying. It’s like okay I need to have the last paragraph read back to me and then I have to add in a single word, like, the somewhere and it sucks trying to maneuver the software to add in the the in the exact place it’s needed,”  
“EXACTLY!,” shouts Toph.  
She calms down, “One of the many reasons I hate having to take english,”  
Zuko hums his agreement, “It can get so annoying,”.  
Toph sighs, “I have to work on a stupid essay later,”.  
“Ugh, that sucks,  
“Yeah, it does,”  
“Well if it makes you feel better, later today I am going to have probably spend an additional 3 and half hours staring at a computer screen after helping Aang, firing my eyeballs, even more in the process, just so I can order one stinking sweater off the internet that I’ll probably hate and just send back anyways,”  
“Ugh, forget the computer then and just go to a real store,”  
“I don’t know. I hate shopping for clothes,” he debates it, “But, at least I would be able to feel the sweaters I am buying,”  
“Yeah, that’s the point, Sparky. I get the whole hating shopping thing though, it’s like I don’t care what I look like. I can’t even see what I am wearing so why bother,”  
“You still get to feel the textures of what your wearing,”  
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, but still. My parents like to dress me up in fancy clothes, like dresses and skirts and it’s like those suck. I can’t even move in them and I don’t care what I look like so why bother. It feels stupid to buy expensive clothes I can’t even see,”  
“Makes sense, anyways at this point a lot of my “new” clothes, are just stuff I found on clearance rakes or at thrift stores,”   
“Same,” says Toph,  
“I mean, Iguess I could just pop in to the Laundry Line, a thrift store,” he clarifies, “this morning before classes,”  
“There you go, Sparky, get them sweaters,”  
He snorts, “So, what are you going to be doing before your classes?”  
“Ehh, probably nothing,”  
Zuko hates shopping, every now that he’s come to better terms with his appearance, he hates it. He hates having to stare at himself in the mirror, it feels weird. And he hates how it always reminds him of going shopping with Azula for hours. Overall, he doesn’t have very many positive experiences with shopping. It’s annoying. It takes forever to find something he’ll even consider trying on, and so many times things will look nice on a hanger but look like shit on him. Plus, the longer and longer he has to spend shopping the more frustrated he becomes and then he starts hating everything he tries on, which just means he has to spend even longer shopping and hates it even more, it’s a stupid endless cycle. So now he prefers shopping online or in person with someone else, that way he doesn’t have to rely on his own opinions of himself, as long as someone he trusts says something looks nice on him he buys it.  
The idea of going shopping alone today is stressing him out, it’s too last minute to ask Jin or Mai to go with him, uncle’s working and it’s been determined he has bad fashion tastes. The only other friends he has are Aang and Toph, and Aang would just agree with everything he tries on and inadvertently make it worse. Toph wouldn’t be able to see him but at least he knows she’ll give a blunt honest opinion, but it would be weird to ask for her help. Plus, he’s too pig-chicken to ask her to go with him.   
He thinks she’s pretty cool, yeah she’s a bit scary almost like Azula, but unlike Azula, Toph can actually be nice and she cares about her friends. She doesn’t use people as pawns, plus uncle likes her which is a huge plus. But, it was a stupid idea to even have in the first place. He’s just going to act like he never thought about it at all and act cool, like a normal functioning human being would, cool.  
“For thrifting your own clothes have you ever checked out the laundry line?” he asks Toph.  
“Nah, what’s it like?”  
Zuko tries to picture the store in his mind so he can best describe it to her, “It’s a decent sized store, but they like sorting their clothes by color rather than stuff like sizes or types of clothing so it’s kinda weird. They do have some fitting rooms in the back which is nice, though,”  
He’s trying to determine how best to describe the store when uncle pops back over to their table, “Oh, you’re talking about that lovely little thrift store that Li owns. They have the best Hawiian shirts during the summer,”  
“Sounds nice, maybe I’ll check it out sometime,” shrugs Toph.  
“Oh, you should Li is a great man, though his Pai Sho skills do need more attention if he hopes to improve, but the store always have the darndest things,”  
Zuko turns his attention to uncle, “I am going there this morning before classes,” he explains.  
“Oh that’s good,” he turns to Toph, “Unfortunately, I can’t recall the exact address of the store off the top of my head so I am afraid I can’t give it to you for future use, but, hmmm, maybe you and Zuko can go together today. Then you could learn where it is, do some shopping, and figure out if you’d like to visit it again another time. I am sure that once there you’d be able to get a business card with their address on it so you could put it into your phone for future reference,”.  
“Aha, what a week first I get an errand boy and now there’s the prospect of getting my own personal shopper too,”  
“I wouldn’t mind,” shrugs Zuko, “but I am not your personal shopper,” he says pointedly to Toph who just waves off the comment.  
“I am sure it’d be nice to have some company,” nods uncles.  
“I’ll go, it might be fun, Sparky,” agrees Toph “But we’re not getting makeovers or doing each other's nails,” she says pointedly.  
Zuko snorts, “Good,”.  
Uncle has to leave when he notices that the Pai Sho players cups are empty again and he wishes them well on their shopping trip before he’s off, teapot in hand.  
They finish their drinks and Zuko takes their plates and cups to the back when he drops them off Rina is just taking off her apron having just finished the dishes, Zuko leaves the kitchen quickly after that and returns to the front.  
He offers Toph his arm and the two of them plus Momo exit the tea shop and start the short walk to the Laundry Line, luckily it isn’t that far just a couple blocks away.  
They talk more about Bad eclipse and some other bands on the way there, Toph isn’t a fan of air nomad music that Aang keeps trying to get her to listen to, Zuko thinks it’s too high pitched.  
When they stop, it’s in front of a storefront with a red and gold awning and a sign on the door that says The Laundry Line. Zuko pulls open the store’s door and Toph and Momo enter before he follows them. The inside of the store consist of long rows of clothing racks displaying the clothes in such a way to make a rainbow. The head off to the racks to start inspecting the various pieces of clothing.  
Zuko heads to the grey section of the rainbow while Toph starts walking up and down the aisle next to his, feeling the various pieces of clothing as she goes.   
“Hey, Sparky,” calls out Toph.  
Zuko looks up from the grey long sleeve t-shirt he had been inspecting,“Yeah?”  
“Want to play a game?”  
Zuko eyes her. He isn’t quite sure what Toph would consider to be a game considering she thinks punching is a form of affection. He’s just hoping it isn’t like any of the games Azula used to make him play as children. “What type of game?” he asks, turning back towards the rack to put the shirt back where he found it.  
“Oh, it’s nothing too fun,” “ she reassures, “I just pick something at random, you describe it to me and then I decide if we have to try it on or not,”.  
Zuko looks down at a nice gray sweater that he had found and throws into the basket he’s carrying before turning around to face Toph who’s standing in front of the store’s red section, he sighs “Fine,”. At least there aren’t any apples, water fountains, or fire involved with this game.  
Toph starts walking up and down the aisle before she stops and pulls out a skirt and holds it up for him to see.  
Zuko takes a few seconds to look at the skirt before attempting to describe it to her , “Um, it's a corduroy mini skirt, it’s a dark red, I guess you could say it’s wine red. And,um, and it has brass buttons on the front that connect the skirt together, and it looks way too big for you,” he finishes.  
Toph grins, “Too big for me, but big enough for you?”.  
“No,”.  
“Ah, come on, I think it would look great on you,”  
Zuko sighs and glares across the aisle at her, “Toph, I am not Aang or Sokka. I know you’re lying because I remember that you’re blind,”.  
Toph shrugs and sticks the skirt back onto the rack.  
As Toph continues oscillating up and down the aisle as she thinks about her next pick, Zuko shuffles down away from the greys and to the black section. He looks around for a bit as he waits for Toph. He knows that he’s here for sweaters, he finds a really nice black sweatshirt that says NO. in red font that he adds to his basket but there’s also a really nice pair of black jeans next to the sweatshirt. And they even have a couple of rips on the knees which would surely give Ozai an aneurysm if he ever saw them on someone with the Sozin name, and they’re his size too, he adds them to the basket.  
“What about this?” asks Toph. Zuko turns to see what she’s managed to find this time.  
“It’s red again,” he can see Toph rolling her eyes at him all the way over here in the blacks so he starts again. “It’s a big, chunky, bright red cable knit sweater. The knit is loose so the yarn has some big gaps in it that makes it look not very warm, I am guessing. And it’s big for you, so it’d look oversized, and with all the gaps in the yarn it’s pretty much see through so you’d have to wear something underneath it,”.  
She holds the fabrics in between her fingers and rubs it against them before saying “I’ll try it,” before chucking it toward Zuko who fumbles to catch it and put it securely in the basket.  
He watches as Toph yanks something else out of the rake fill of red clothes and he’s sure that if he had a drink he’d be doing a spit take right now. He still sputters though when he sees it which catches Toph’s attention, “What? Is it just that good?” she asks.  
“NO!,” rushes out Zuko a bit louder than he had intended to because WTF even is that. Who decided that it was a good idea to make it? Who bought it and then donated it here? Who decided to put it out on the racks? Seriously, WTF. “Um, not that one Toph,” he manages to choke out.  
“Why?”  
“It’s a red t-shirt,” she snorts, she is in the red section after all, “That says in a white font, Marriage equals a man, plus sign, a woman,”.  
Toph immediately pales and drops the shirt onto the floor. Zuko watches as she jumps up and down on the shirt a few times before kicking it across the store and away from them.  
“Quick Sparky, hand me your lighter,” she says sticking out her hand toward him.  
“I don’t have a lighter on me,”  
“Well,” she says glaring in his direction “I need to burn that shirt and probably my hand too, so think of something,” Zuko cringes at the mention of burning but suppresses the emotions that come with that line of thinking and glares back Toph, and yes he knows she can’t see it, but it still makes him feel better so he’s going to keep on glaring thank you very much.   
“I can’t just pull a lighter out of my ass,”  
Toph snorts before she cringes, “Spirits, this is just great. They’re going to revouch my gay card, and make Suki the Superior Lesbian now,”  
Zuko stares at Toph who’s going back to rummaging through the racks of clothing, “Wait, you’re gay?” he asks.  
“Yeah,” snaps Toph, whirling around to face him “You got a problem with that?” asks Toph scowling.  
“No, no, no, no, not at all, “ he rushes out. “I was just caught off guard is all, I am not homophobic in fact I gay,” he clears his throat, “I am gay too,” he says trying to act causal, leaning against the rack the clothes behind him, the picture of causal and nonchalance.   
“Sweet,” Toph fist bumps the air, well he’s never gotten that reaction to coming out before. He’s so surprised from her reaction that he nearly falls through the rack of clothes he had been trying to lean against, he’s thankful that Toph is blind and can’t see the blush on his face as he straightens himself and takes a few steps away from the rack .  
“Um, thanks,” he mumbles “but I didn’t really do anything, so”.  
“I mean yeah,” says Toph waving off his embarrassment,“but this just means that our group's ability to attract, recruit, and retain gays is still spot on. Well, except for Katara of course. I don’t know how she managed to slip through the cracks and into the group but it’s too late to do anything about it, now,”. Toph taps at her chin as if in a deep thought over the issue, “Hmmm, she did join us in the beginning so our straight people repellent just probably wasn't as effective yet. It was still in it’s testing phases back then, so that’s probably how she managed it,” she decides.  
Zuko snorts, “Good to know I affirm your guys’s inability to get along with straight people,”.   
“Hey,” says Toph, throwing up her hands to tell him to wait just a minute, “I am perfectly fine with straight people. I support them. Why one of my dearest friends is straight, it’s just why do they have to shove it in my face,” he tries to fight it, but he can’t stop the smile growing on his face. “Not to mention,” continues Toph “when it becomes their whole personality and they're constantly pushing their straight agenda. Asking for more and more rights, it’s never enough for them, they always want more. But Katara, she's a good straight. She knows what to keep behind the closed doors of her own home. I support her, and the lifestyle that she has as a mature adult has chosen 100%,”.  
Zuko snorts, “That’s very progressive of you Toph,”.  
Toph beams at him and stands up a little bit taller, “Damn lesbian it is,”. Zuko laughs and Toph follows suit, so it’s just the two of them laughing their asses off at gay jokes in the middle of an empty thrift store in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. As Zuko wipes away the tears that had welled up in his right eye he can’t help but think that this is peak MLM and WLW solidarity.  
They eventually settle down and return to sorting through the racks of clothing surrounding them. As Zuko is searching for more sweaters he pulls out something he thinks Toph would actually like.  
“Okay, you’re turn to guess,” he calls out to Toph who is still searching through the store’s extensive red section, it takes up both sides of the entire aisle she’s down.   
Toph turns to face him. She massages her fingers against her temples and stares intently toward him, “I am ready,” she announces. “I am sensing that it’s a piece of clothing ” Zuko snorts and she continues, “I am picking up something big, a lot of sharp spikes. Maybe some black. I am going to have to go with a black leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders sharp enough to kill a man,”.  
“Well, it is black so I guess I’ll give you a point there, but for the rest of it, it's a no. It’s a pair of black overalls and they look they’re your size,”  
“I’ll try them on, but only if you try on this,” Toph sticks her arm out into the rack of red clothes and pulls a shirt. She holds it up, showing him the front and the back. It’s awful but at the same time he knows that it could’ve been so much worse. And anyways, if he does have to buy it he knows that when in doubt Mai and Jin will both love it’s hideousness and will probably end up fighting over it.  
He sighs, “Fine,”.  
Toph tosses him the shirt and he adds it and the overalls to their basket. “So, what did I pick?” she asks.  
“Well, it’s red,” he starts, letting Toph snort before he continues, “It’s bright red and a dress shirt. It feels like it’s made of knock off silk. And, and on the back there’s two big dragons, one’s blue and the other’s red,”. By the time he stops Toph’s folding in half from the laughter raking her body. He walks an aisle over to join her in the red section and when once she recovers “Let’s try this stuff on already,” he says shaking his head  
“Definitely,”.   
They make their way over to the fitting room area which is really just small cubicles divided with curtains with a couple floor length mirrors at the end of the hallway. Zuko hands Toph her clothes and leads her to a fitting room across from his.  
Zuko enters his own fitting room and pulls the curtain closed behind him. He tugs his own shirt off over his head and puts on the grey sweater first. It’s a little bit snugger than he’d like but at least it’s soft.  
“Are you done yet, Sparky?” yells Toph.  
“Yeah, you?”  
“Yeah, on three. One....One and a half…. 2 and a quarter…………….Three” she shouts.  
They pull back the curtains and they step out into the hallway to inspect themselves and each other. Toph’s still wearing the jeans that she had worn into the store along with her white tank top but she’s replaced her green flannel for the bulky red sweater.   
“Tell me how we looking,” says Toph.  
“We look nice,” decides Zuko looking at the two of them side by side in the mirror in front of them. “My grey sweater is a bit smaller than I’d like but I normally just wear oversized sweaters so I guess it really just fits like normal, though I’d-”  
“Does it show off your muscles?” cuts off Toph.  
Zuko whips his head to the side to look at her, “What?”.  
“Your muscles,” says Toph, reaching out and squeezing his bicep next to her, “you’re surprisingly ripped under all those button downs,”.  
“Thanks?”, he says it more like a question and turns back to focus on them in the mirror.  
He watches her in the glass as she shrugs, “Now does it show off your muscles or not?” she presses.  
Zuko sighs, “I mean I guess it shows them off just like any other shirt would, it's literally just a basic grey sweater and it looks fine on me I guess,”.  
Now it’s Toph’s turn to sigh, “Okay, as long as it looks fine. How else are we supposed to be finding you a nice avatarian boy?”  
Zuko blinks and has to close his mouth a few times before he manages to choke out, “I am not avatarian,”.   
Toph just waves him, “Whatever, do me next?”.  
“Um,” he takes a few seconds to look down at her standing next to him, “ your red sweater is nice too. I was right it’s a bit see through, but it’s not too bad. You're almost completely covered,” he assures, “The bright red is, I guess, an accent color so it isn’t overpowering and what with the basic jeans and white undershirt, it works. I was worried it would be too bright and would make you look pale but it honestly doesn’t, instead it compliments your slight tan nicely,” he finishes.  
“OMS,” shouts Toph turning to face him “you’re fashion gay aren’t you?” she asks, pointing a finger at him accusingly.  
Zuko snorts, “No, I am not. I just have a basic fashion sense,” he looks away from Toph’s gaze and away from the mirror to look back at the fitting room he had changed in, “My sister just used to drag me along shopping so I picked up on some stuff, okay,”.  
“Okay, whatever,” dismisses Toph. “Next,” she yells and turns on her heel to go back to her fitting room.  
Zuko returns to his own. He tugs off the grey sweater and returns it to the hanger and throws on the hoodie and it feels fine and it’s just a sweatshirt, so he takes it off not bothering to describe it to Toph and instead and puts on the fake silk dress shirt that Toph had picked out for him.   
Just as he’s finishing the buttons he hears counting, “two point three hunder and fourteen…..two point sixty-three,” why she’s just picking random numbers, he doesn’t know and decides to just go with it,“…...three,” finishes Toph.  
Once again they both exit their fitting rooms and make their way over to the mirror at the end of the hallway. “Okay, the black overalls are a good look,” says Zuko. “They seem very you, very practically. They have multiple pockets, no obvious rips. They are loose,” he thinks for a second before continuing, “Well, obviously, you can feel that, but still they have that type of look. And the feet are rolled up so they’re more like capris but they don’t make you look shorter or anything. So, they seem good,” he finishes.  
“I like them,”decides Toph as she tests out her movements in them, “They’re breezy and the pockets are real. I hate it when they add fake pockets, it’s like, what’s the point?”  
“To make you buy purses and also they think women care more about the shape of their bodies than practicality,” he’s heard this discussion between Jin and Mai multiple times and once again he’s thankful that his pockets are always real.  
“Sexist bullshit,” grumbles Toph.  
“Sexist bullshit,” he argees and turns toward the mirror to look at himself. “Um, I am wearing the red shirt you picked out for me,”  
“How is it?”   
“It’s honestly not awful. It’s very shiny and bright red,” he admits with a slight grimace, “Almost like the color of fresh blood, but for some reason it works,”. If someone had described this shirt to him earlier he would have laughed in their faces if they tried to get him to try it on, but standing here in front of the mirror, looking at himself in it, he doesn’t hate it. Yeah, it’s loud and in your face which is something he normally hates but there’s something about this shirt. Maybe, it’s so weird, so nonsensically, and so different from what he likes that he somehow has ended up loving it. Uncle does always say the opposite of hate isn’t love but rather indifference. Maybe he hates it so much that he loves it. It’s trash and ugly but it’s his ugly trash.  
“It has all it’s buttons and they’re all secured nicely which is a plus,” says Zuko, continuing to describe the shirt to Toph. “There are two dragons on the back, one is dark blue and the other is dark red, their tails are intertwined and they branch away at the heads and also they’re both breathing the others color in flames, which is kinda cool. Then the dragons show up again, but this time separated and not blowing fire, on the collar. It’s a man’s shirt so it isn’t see through or anything, but it’s a bit light and draft,”.  
Toph nods at all this information,“And your arms?”.  
Zuko sighs, “The arms are a bit tight, tighter than the sweater but I checked and I can fully move, so it’s fine. The torse is a bit loose though, but it seems like it was by design,”  
“Noice,”   
They go back to their fitting rooms and Zuko changes back into his own shirt to try on the new pair of jeans, they fit nice and aren’t tight. They’re high waisted and have rips, well more like holes, at his knees, which is good because he can still fully bend them, so he’ll take them. He changes back into his own jeans quickly so he can meet Toph back outside the fitting rooms in front of the mirror so they can pay and leave.  
He pulls back the curtain and finds Toph back in her own clothes holding onto Momo’s leash shuffling to the autotune, electronic song on the radio that’s playing throughout the speakers in the entire store. It doesn’t sound like there's a single real instrument in the song and it’s obnoxiously optimistic.  
Toph jumps at the sudden noise of the curtain being thrown back, and she glares toward the sound. “Not a single word,” she says pointing a finger toward him, “I get it. It’s a stupid song and I can’t dance, okay. I know, so just drop it”.  
Zuko throws his hands up reflexively but lowers them pretty quickly, “It’s a stupidly catchy song that just grows on you,” grumbles Zuko and he walks over to stand next to Toph and Momo, “And I am not one to judge anyone else’s dancing ability,”.  
Toph huffs, “Well, at least you can still see if you like an idiot,”.  
“Yeah, I got see just how much of an idiot I looked like when I had to ballroom dancing as kid,”  
Toph snorts, “That shit doesn’t count as dancing, and everyone looks like an idiot when they’re prancing around doing that shit,”.  
Zuko refrains from arguing that ballroom dancing when done properly is a beautiful artform that can act as an expression of one’s self. Just because he would butcher the steps doesn’t mean other people did, Azual didn’t, she always made it look so graceful and elegant. He sighs instead of arguing, “That doesn’t change the fact that I still suck at it, and couldn’t remember the steps and would always lose my balance when we had to do the spins, and my balance just sucks even more than it did then now anyways,”.  
“Your balance?” questions Toph  
“Yeah, it can be shit at times,” His balance used to be really good, far above average in everything but dancing. He never had trouble spinning while using his sword but spinning while dancing with a partner always ended in disaster. And now, ever since his burn and becoming partial deaf, his balance is average on his best days, but most of the time it’s stuck at below average. Familiar settings and layouts are okay but new surroundings can suck. He pulls himself from his thoughts and continues, “Not to mention the music they play on the speakers at parties and concerts is always the worst to dance to,”.  
Toph nods, “Their music choices and sound quality are always shit,”.  
“Yeah, and it always annoys me and gives me a headache because the volumes are all off,”  
“It’s also too loud or too quiet, it’s impossible to find a good medium and then if you do you move like an inch and it’s thrown off completely,”  
Zuko snorts, “Try it with a messed ear that muffles all the lyrics and sound,”  
Toph tilts her head to the side as she stares up in his direction, “Wait, is your left ear messed up like your eye?”.   
“Yeah, I am not deaf-deaf just partially, so, sound from that side always sounds too quiet. With earbuds though, I’ve adjusted the sound settings so it’d sound normal to me, but you can’t do that with a speaker,”.  
Toph nods, “Yeah, you can’t,”  
They stand in silence for a few beats before Zuko snorts, “Momo’s the only one here with good eyes and good ears, spirits he’s probably a better dancer than both of us too,”  
“Oh, he is. I’ve seen him he’s really good,”  
“Yeah sure,” Zuko rolls his eyes, “Can we go check out now?”  
Toph shrugs, “No use in standing around here all day,”  
Zuko can see her still holding the overalls but left the sweater in a pile of other discarded clothes in the corner of the dressing room, He takes her arms and steers them toward the counter where Li is   
“Whatcha getting?” asks Toph as they walk past the rainbow aisles of clothes toward the counter.  
“The sweaters, the dress shirt, and a pair of black jeans,”   
They take turns getting rung up and paying Li. Before they leave the counter Zuko makes sure to grab one of the store’s business cards and drops it into Toph’s bag. They pair, plus Momo, exit the store together and step off to the side of the store on the sidewalk.  
“What time is it?” asks Toph.  
Zuko looks down at his wrist to check his watch, “Like 12:30”.  
Toph hums, “eh, I’ll probably head over to the music building earlier before my classes start then,”.  
“I was thinking about using one of the libraries on campus to read up on Aang’s latest assignment before our tutoring session…. Want to walk back to campus together?”  
“Sure, we’re going the same way anyways,” says Toph shrugging.  
“Cool, can we just stop by the Jasmine Dragon so I can pick up my backpack, it’s on the way,”  
“Only if you get me a free cup of tea,”  
Zuko rolls his eyes but says “Fine,” anyways  
They make the walk back to the tea shop and Zuko leads Toph down the side alley to the apartment door.  
“If you’re leading me down a dark disgusting alleyway in the hopes of killing me, just know I can and will kick your ass,”  
“I don’t doubt that you can kick my ass and it’s not that dark and it doesn’t smells, and anyways you did say we can get my backpack,”  
“You didn’t say anything about murder on the agenda. Not that I am mad, I mean as long as it’s not ours I am down, I just would’ve liked a warning before hand is all,”  
“We aren’t getting murdered, or murdering anyone else for that matter. We’re here for my backpack. Uncle and I live above the tea shop and this is where the apartment door is,”  
“Whatever,”  
Zuko pulls out his key and opens the door that leads to the stairway, “Do you want to come up or stay here with Momo?”  
“I’ll stay here. Just know that if you hear someone getting murdering that I am not the one being killed, it’s the other way around,”  
He sighs, “Okay,”.  
Zuko makes his way up the familiar stairs and opens the apartment door, it’s quiet inside so that means uncle is probably still downstairs in the shop working. He toes off his shoes and enters the apartment, he stops by the kitchen to use the electric kettle that uncle only keeps around for him to start heating up water for Toph. He hurries down the hall to his room, grabbing his backpack, shoveling books into it and checking to make sure it has his glasses, before he goes back to the kitchen. The water is done so he pours it into a disposable to go cup and throws a tea bag into it, it needs to steep for 3 minutes before it’s done so he uses the time to fix his hair and pick up the plastic bag from the Laundry Line that he had thrown down onto the counter and dumps it into the dirty clothes laundry hamper in his room. He puts his shoes back on, shoulders his backpack, and grabs Toph’s to go cup throwing out the tea bag on his way back down to the alley.  
When he exits the stairwell he finds Toph fiddling with her phone and with one earbud in.  
“Hey, Toph. Here’s your tea,” she sticks out her hand and he forks it over to her. She sniffs at before taking a tentative sip.  
“Well, it ain’t complete shit,”  
“I do work in a tea shop you know,”  
“Oh, I know, but there’s a reason why people ask for uncle’s tea over your’s”  
Zuko rolls his eyes and they start their walk toward campus together. Toph’s walking arm in arm with him to his right, holding onto Momo’s leash with one hand as he flies two feet in front of them and onto his arm with her other. Zuko can see she still has her earbud in and is bobbing her head along to something playing through it.  
“What are you listening to?” he asks.  
“Bad Eclipse’s new song,”  
“I already added it to my drown it out loud playlist,”  
Toph nods and looks up at him, “I’ve added it to my playlist titled louder, which is different from louder, louder and also different from louder, louder, louder” she explains.  
Zuko looks up at the sky and snorts. Of course Toph wouldn’t be satisfied with a playlist of just loud songs, she’d need to special categorize their volumes and vibes. When he looks back down at the street in front of them he feels Toph thrust her phone into his hand, “Add your contact information and send me your drown it out loud playlist. I’ll be the judge of whether it’s good or not,”.  
“Um, okay,” Zuko adds his contact information and sends himself a quick message from her phone to his so he’ll have her number too. Toph takes back her phone when he’s done and opens speech to text to shoot him a quick message, “Sup, tea boy, your music tastes better not suck ass, lol. This is Toph, the greatest rockstar of our generation, by the way,”.  
He can feel his phone buzz in his pocket, “Thanks,” he deadpans.  
“Your welcome,”  
Eventually they reach the music building where they say their goodbyes and Zuko makes his way to one of the university’s libraries to start preparing for Aang’s tutoring later in the day.


End file.
